Old Movie Time

Well, what do yo know? This film was a surprise when I ran across it in a thrift shop. Entitled The Corral it has both Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in it along with Lon Chaney Jr, Smiley Burnette, and the Sons of the Pioneers. The surprise was that Roy Rogers plays an OUTLAW.

It starts out with a murder in a big city back east (Chicago) witnessed by a female singer (Irene or Hope Manning) who runs off and heads West to Turquoise City, Arizona. She catches a bus that is on its way to Arizona and the bus gets caught behind a buggy carrying Gene Autry who is the Sheriff, and a crook he is taking to jail, and of course, Gene is singing a song as they ride along. The bus runs the buggy off the road and the buggy finally crashes, but Gene and the outlaw are unharmed. A man tries to make points with the singer on the bus and tells her he runs a number of clubs and he wants her to be the lead singer at the Blue Moon in Turquoise City. Gene and the outlaw and every one else climbs back on the bus and they don't get far before they are held up by Roy Rogers and his gang. After the holdup, the bus continues into Turquoise City where Gene locks up the crook in the jail. Smiley Burnette is a deputy and his first scene has him playing the harmonica, a guitar, and with his feet a xylophone serenading with a song a crook already in jail.

The man who had been trying to woo the female threatens her by telling her he will turn her in to Scarlotti, the murderer, if she doesn't take a job at the Blue Moon, which she does. Gene and Smiley go after the bus robbers, who he knows as the O'Keefe (or Keefe) brothers (who are actually the Sons of the Pioneers) and held up the bus to get publicity to put on a show on the radio. Gene brings most of them back to jail where they prepare for the big celebration by singing songs to the crooks in jail.

Scarlotti shows up in town to get rid of the witness to the murder, but Smiley interrupts them and Gene and Smiley take off after them and round them up after capturing Roy Rogers and his partner. Gene locks up the Carlotti gang and lets the Sons of the Pioneers and Roy out of jail to sing at the big town celebration and everyone lives happily ever after as justice is served.

This movie was a kick to watch and enjoy with the mix of the singing, horses and cars and the bus as a lot of those old movies did during the transition to the modern era. It was filmed in 1936.